Some of the identity photographs of suspects in the killing of Mahmoud al Mabhouh released by the Dubai police on Wednesday. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A Perfectly Framed Assassination -- Wall Street Journal

Stepped-up surveillance technology may be tipping the scales in the cat-and-mouse game between spies and their targets. Robert Baer on the current state of spycraft.

It was a little after 9 p.m. when a Palestine Liberation Organization official stepped out of the elevator into the lobby of Paris's Le Meridien Montparnasse, a modern luxury hotel that caters to businessmen and well-heeled tourists. The PLO official was going to dinner with a friend, who was waiting by the front desk. As they pushed out the Meridien's front door, they both noticed a man on a divan looking intently at them. It was odd enough that at dinner they called a contact in the French police. The policeman advised the PLO official to go directly back to the hotel after dinner and stay put. The police would look into it in the morning.

My Comment: I am sure that many intelligence agencies will be spending a lot of time in understanding what went right ... and what went wrong .... in this assassination hit. Robert Baer gives some insight on what they are up against.

Every four years the White House issues a “nuclear posture review.” That may sound like an anachronism. It isn’t. In a world where the United States and Russia still have more than 20,000 nuclear weapons — and Iran, North Korea and others have seemingly unquenchable nuclear appetites — what the United States says about its arsenal matters enormously.

President Obama’s review was due to Congress in December. That has been delayed, in part because of administration infighting. The president needs to get this right. It is his chance to finally jettison cold war doctrine and bolster America’s credibility as it presses to rein in Iran, North Korea and other proliferators.

Read more ....My Comment: An interesting set of ideas .... but the Russians (so far) have shown zero interest in pursuing any of them. Their focus is to go step by step .... and they do not want surprises like missile defense thrown into the mix. But in the meantime they are modernizing their nuclear stockpiles, and keeping their options open.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe attends the swearing-in ceremony of his Mozambican counterpart Armando Guebuza for a second term in office in the capital Maputo, January 14, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Grant Lee Neuenburg

A law to force white-owned companies to surrender 51 per cent of their shareholdings to black Zimbabweans comes into effect today, amid panic in the country’s business sector and fears of a catastrophic slide back into economic chaos.

Six weeks from now all companies with a relatively modest asset value of at least US$500,000 (£325,000) will have to submit official forms detailing the race of each of their shareholders. If whites are in the majority they will have to submit their “indigenisation plans”, which have to be carried out within five years.

LAHORE, Pakistan — Umar Kundi was his parents’ pride, an ambitious young man from a small town who made it to medical school in the big city. It seemed like a story of working-class success, living proof in this unequal society that a telephone operator’s son could become a doctor.

But things went wrong along the way. On campus Mr. Kundi fell in with a hard-line Islamic group. His degree did not get him a job, and he drifted in the urban crush of young people looking for work. His early radicalization helped channel his ambitions in a grander, more sinister way.

Read more ....My Comment: The New York Times uses the example of a medical student and his road to jihad as an illustration of what ails Pakistan, but this example is just the tip of the iceberg. All of Pakistan's Islamic base insurgencies can be traced to the explosive growth and the Islamic radicalization of madrases in Pakistan's educational system. Instead of teaching science, engineering, practical skills and knowledge for the future .... millions are instead taught about Islam, intolerance, jihad, and hatred towards "non-believers" .... all educational skills that have zero value in the real world. With no prospects or future ahead of them .... jihad then becomes the career choice for many of Pakistan's young.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The U.S. Coast Guard is facing $155 million in cuts to its capital spending budget, according to federal documents.

The cuts, described in documents from U.S. Rep. John Mica's office, came as a shock to Mica of Florida.

"We were stunned - both Republicans and Democrats - that the administration would propose dramatic cuts in the Coast Guard which is our first line of national security and domestic defense and safety," said Mica in a phone conversation Friday.

Photo: Sir David Richards has said cuts are damaging soldiers' morale. Photo from Press Association.

Top General Says Afghanistan Army In Morale Crisis -- Times Online

THE head of the army has warned that British troops are facing a crisis of deteriorating morale on the home front that risks undermining the war in Afghanistan.

In a confidential draft memo prepared for ministers, General Sir David Richards, chief of the general staff (CGS), said that recent cuts to the defence budget are having a “cumulative and corrosive effect on our soldiers and their families”.

Cuts to housing, shortages of training equipment and even the cancellation of sports events between soldiers’ tours of duty were making them and their families feel “undervalued”, the army chief wrote.

Photo: Gogeascoechea (left) with the two other ETA suspectscaptured by Spanish police. Photo from CNN

ETA Leader Arrested In France -- The Telegraph

French and Spanish security forces dealt a big blow to ETA on Sunday with the arrest in north-west France of the alleged leader of the Basque separatist movement.

Ibon Gogeascoetxea Arronategi was arrested with two of his alleged top lieutenants at a country house in the tiny village of Cahan in Normandy – 400 miles north of the Spanish frontier.

The predawn raid on Cahan, which has a population 300 and is south of Caen, was the climax of a joint operation by the intelligence branches of the Police Judiciare – the French detective force – and Spain's paramilitary Civil Guard. It netted three of ETA's most wanted men.

The United States is fighting a cyber-war today, and we are losing. It's that simple. As the most wired nation on Earth, we offer the most targets of significance, yet our cyber-defenses are woefully lacking.

The problem is not one of resources; even in our current fiscal straits, we can afford to upgrade our defenses. The problem is that we lack a cohesive strategy to meet this challenge.

The stakes are enormous. To the extent that the sprawling U.S. economy inhabits a common physical space, it is in our communications networks. If an enemy disrupted our financial and accounting transactions, our equities and bond markets or our retail commerce -- or created confusion about the legitimacy of those transactions -- chaos would result. Our power grids, air and ground transportation, telecommunications, and water-filtration systems are in jeopardy as well.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - The race for Colombia's presidency began Saturday, with former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos the favorite after the South American nation's popular incumbent was blocked from running for a third term.

The Constitutional Court's decision to bar a referendum on re-election heralds an end to President Alvaro Uribe's eight-year rule, during which the U.S. ally beat back left-wing guerrillas, stabilized the economy and drew investors.

With Colombian politics fixated for more than a year on the re-election issue, and polls showing Uribe would have won easily if allowed to run, Friday's ruling represented a starting gun for other presidential aspirants.

Combat Generation: Drone Operators Climb On Winds Of Change In The Air Force - -Washington Post

The question, scrawled on a Pentagon whiteboard last fall, captured the strange and difficult moment facing the Air Force.

"Why does the country need an independent Air Force?" the senior civilian assistant to Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, the service's chief of staff, had written. For the first time in the 62-year history of the Air Force, the answer isn't entirely clear.

The Air Force's identity crisis is one of many ways that a decade of intense and unrelenting combat is reshaping the U.S. military and redefining the American way of war. The battle against insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq has created an insatiable demand for the once-lowly drone, elevating the importance of the officers who fly them.

On a visit to Helmand, the head of the armed forces has said that British troops have performed superbly in Operation Moshtarak, and that the initial phase has gone well.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup was speaking as he flew in to Showal, formerly the heartland of the Taliban's shadow government.

He said there were still pockets of resistance further south in Marjah, where the Americans have been fighting, and some resistance in Nad Ali, but that levels had eased considerably over the last few days.

SANTIAGO, CHILE -- One of the most powerful earthquakes on record jolted central Chile on Saturday, smashing homes and bridges and unleashing tsunami waves that coursed across the Pacific, prompting alerts in Hawaii and dozens of countries. More than 300 people have died in the coastal South American nation.

Waves generated by the 8.8-magnitude quake started to smack Hawaiian beaches about noon local time, but they were smaller than the six-foot monsters scientists had feared. The water surged more than three feet in Kahului Bay in Maui. But there were no reports of flooding or damage, and the tsunami warning was canceled in the early afternoon, officials said.Read more ....

Youths flaunt guns on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. (Pablo Jacob/Extra/O globo)

The Gun-Toting Boys From Brazil Who Rule Rio’s ‘Corner Of Fear’ -- Times Online

A boy steps boldly into the night traffic and waves a gun to bring the cars to a halt, clearing a path for a motorcycle which screeches into the intersection. Riding pillion is another boy, brandishing a machinegun.

Later two teenagers, also riding pillion on motorbikes, flash their guns at other motorists; nearby, a boy can be seen taking aim with a rifle equipped with a telescopic sight. Other youths wander the street smoking crack.

My Comment: This is Brazil's lost generation. But while the focus is on Brazil, we can easily look at ourselves. Every major US city has a problem with youth gangs, drugs, and the violent culture that it produces. While we may lament on what is happening in North Rio de Janeiro, the sad fact is that every major US city has the same problem.

WASHINGTON — When Iran was caught last September building a secret, underground nuclear enrichment plant at a military base near the city of Qum, the country’s leaders insisted they had no other choice. With its nuclear facilities under constant threat of attack, they said, only a fool would leave them out in the open.

So imagine the surprise of international inspectors almost two weeks ago when they watched as Iran moved nearly its entire stockpile of low-enriched nuclear fuel to an above-ground plant. It was as if, one official noted, a bull’s-eye had been painted on it.

My Comment: When it comes to Iran there is one simple rule that everyone should follow .... do not trust them. Iran has a terrible history in the international arena of diplomacy and respecting the sovereignty of other countries and negotiated agreements. Death to America and threatening the annihilation of Israel in every speech and demonstration tends to get dry after a while ... but they are listed as a state sponsor of terror for a reason and every threat and comment made by the regime in Tehran must be taken seriously. So .... moving their nuclear fuel may be a puzzle to the New York Times .... but trust me .... there is a very blunt reason on why they are doing this ..... it is just that we have not figured it out yet.

In Afghanistan, U.S. Plans Major Push Into Kandahar -- Washington Post

Even as Marines in Afghanistan continued to fight for control of the Taliban stronghold of Marja, senior Obama administration officials said Friday that the United States has begun initial planning for a bigger, more complex offensive in Kandahar later this year.

The assault on Marja, the largest U.S.-NATO military operation since 2001, is a "prelude to larger, more comprehensive operations," senior Obama officials said Friday. Administration officials declined to say when the Kandahar offensive will begin, but military officials have said that it probably will kick off in late spring or early summer after additional U.S. forces have moved into the area.

An image generated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center shows the projected tsunami travel times following a 8.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked Chile early February 27, 2010. REUTERS/NOAA/Handout

President Michelle Bachelet said there were 78 confirmed deaths and that more were possible. Telephone and power lines were down, making it difficult to make an early assessment of the damage, but serious damage was reported in two southern cities.

"Never in my life have I experienced a quake like this, it's like the end of the world," one man told local television from the city of Temuco, where the quake damaged buildings and forced staff to evacuate the regional hospital.

Would you be prepared to cross-dress? And kill a guest in an adjacent hotel room? If the answer to these questions is a resounding “yes”, and you can also act, enjoy luxury international travel with a twist and can carry off a convincing Irish or Australian accent, then the job could be yours.

The Israeli spy agency Mossad may be the target of international reproach since it allegedly killed the Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel this month, but at home emerging details of the operation have generated Mossad mania.

My Comment: When neighboring countries like Iran and Syria plus groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are always discussing ways on how they are going to destroy you .... you will never have problem getting recruits.

I suspect that the reason why there is a rush to join up with Mossad is because of the publicity. If groups like Shin Bet, Israeli special forces, etc. were doing the same thing, they will also be experiencing a rush of recuits.

To perfect the vertical and short takeoff and landing ability of the F-35 Lightning II, test pilots have been taking off and landing at progressively shorter distances and slower speeds, building up to the final, true vertical boost. And today, engine manufacturers Pratt and Whitney released video of the slowest, shortest takeoff and landing yet, in which the jet cruises to a stop at 130 knots.

An artist's conception of how the optical modem could function at a deep ocean cabled observatory. Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) collect sonar images (downward bands of light) and other data at a hydrothermal vent site and transmit the data through an optical modem to receivers stationed on moorings in the ocean. The moorings are connected to a cabled observatory, and the data are sent back to scientists on shore. Scientists, in turn, can send new instructions to the AUVs via the optical modem as well. (Credit: E. Paul Oberlander, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Rep. Grayson, Blackwater Critic, Finds Himself In A Jam. Blackwater To The Rescue. -- Washington Examiner

Rep. Alan Grayson, the outspoken Florida Democrat, has been a big critic of several military contractors, especially Blackwater, the company now known as Xe. But last week, Grayson, on congressional business in Niger, found himself in a dicey situation when violence broke out and a coup was underway. (Grayson could hear the gunfire from a nearby building.) After a stay at the U.S. Embassy, Grayson was able to catch a flight, arranged by the State Department, out of Niger to Burkina Faso, from which he returned to the United States.

And who ran the flight that evacuated Grayson from the dangerous situation in Niger? None other than Blackwater. Late this afternoon, Grayson's office confirmed that it was an Xe flight that took the lawmaker from Niger to Burkina Faso.

My Comment: The irony is unbelievable. No surprise .... Rep. Alan Grayson feels uncomfortable praising the organization that saved his butt from a possible dangerous situation.

But will this change anything .... I doubt it. He made his fortune suing contractors like Blackwater, and his political leanings are extreme left. I predict that after a week of lying low (if not sooner) he will be back to his normal self.

(CBS) "60 Minutes" has obtained an FBI videotape showing a Defense Department employee selling secrets to a Chinese spy for cash. The video, which has never been made public before, offers a rare glimpse into the secretive world of espionage and illustrates how China’s spying may now pose the biggest espionage threat to the U.S.

China may be the number-one espionage threat now. "The Chinese are the biggest problem we have with respect to the level of effort that they’re devoting against us, versus the level of attention we are giving to them," says Michelle Van Cleave, once America’s top counter-intelligence officer who coordinated the hunt for foreign spies from 2003 to 2006.

SUNRISE AT GTMO: Guantanamo Bay, CUBA — The sun rises on Jan. 23, 2010, over a modified Boeing 747 cargo plane (background) while an MH-53 Super Stallion heavy-lift U.S. Navy helicopter sits on the flight line. With Haiti's one jet-capable airstrip operating well over capacity, Guantanamo Bay Naval Air Station is the major staging point for humanitarian aid bound for Haiti by way of Cuba. Several cargo planes such as this 747 arrive daily, unloading pallets of aid that are then loaded onto helicopters (such as the Super Stallion, with a 17,000-pound cargo capacity) and carrier-capable aircraft to be flown to one of several ships staged just off of Haiti's coastline.

From Popular Mechanics:

The NGOs and disaster-relief teams might have stolen the spotlight in the battle for survival in post-quake Haiti, but behind most of the aid was a massive U.S. military backbone. Here is a behind-the-scenes photo gallery of the U.S. military effort.

Friday, February 26, 2010

(WASHINGTON) — The Veterans Affairs Department says it will take a second look at the disability claims of what could be thousands of Gulf War veterans suffering from illnesses they blame on their war service, the first step toward potentially compensating them nearly two decades after the war ended.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said the decision is part of a "fresh, bold look" his department is taking to help veterans who have what's commonly called "Gulf War illness" and have long felt the government did little to help them. The VA says it also plans to improve training for medical staff who work with Gulf War vets, to make sure they do not simply tell vets that their symptoms are imaginary — as has happened to many over the years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. spy agencies believe an American-born Muslim cleric based in Yemen played a bigger role than first thought in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's decision to start launching attacks against U.S. targets, counterterrorism officials said.

The revised assessment by intelligence analysts could help build a case for adding Anwar al-Awlaki to the U.S. target list to kill or capture top militants, though current and former officials said careful review was needed given his status as a U.S. citizen.

Afghan army commandos stand on a sand bank as a US army Apache helicopter flies above them on February 24, 2010. While the recent capture of Quetta Shura leaders was in Pakistan, the organization runs operations have a wide reach, including within Afghanistan. Newscom

The Afghanistan Taliban is under pressure with 7 of 15 members of its top leadership council, the Quetta Shura, recently arrested. But still in place are senior leaders who might step up and other senior Taliban councils responsible for different parts of the country.

The Afghan Taliban now faces what may be its biggest test in recent years, with 7 of 15 members of its leadership council, the Quetta Shura, recently captured by Pakistani authorities.

From its perch in Pakistan, the Quetta Shura is said to act as a nerve center for all of the Afghan Taliban’s operations, formulating military and political strategy, appointing field commanders, and managing a shadow government.

My Comment: The list of commanders and senior leaders as outlined by The Long War Journal and CSM reveals an organization that has depth and extensive contacts throughout both Pakistan and Afghanistan. This tells me only one thing .... arrest one commander will only result with someone else being promoted upwards .... and there are many who can be promoted.

KABUL—Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers attacked a major hotel and two guesthouses in the Afghan capital, killing at least 17 people and showing the group remains a potent force despite a string of recent setbacks.

The dead included Indian Army officers, a noted French filmmaker and an Italian diplomat who was slain in his room after phoning information about the assailants to officials.

Photo: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. envoy George Mitchell in London last September. (Archive)

Arab Source: Mitchell Wanted To Quit Over U.S. Bias For Israel -- Haaretz

An Arab political source said Friday that special U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has requested to resign due to his frustration with the way the Obama administration has been handling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a Nazareth-based daily.

Hadith a-Nass reported that Mitchell's request stemmed partly from to his own failure to advance the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and also from his perception that certain elements within the State Department hold biased favor toward Israel.

My Comment: I have been following the Middle East conflict for the past 30+ years. The present frustration level is now approaching the level that in the past always resulted in wars and an increase in terrorism.

So .... is war possible in the next year or two? In this case I cannot help but feel that all sides are now positioning themselves for another war, and I cannot help but believe that envoys like George Mitchell are aware that they are powerless to do anything to stop it.

I know that if I was George Mitchell .... I would probably be looking for the exits.

About Me

I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.